Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On 5 August 2022, we lost an icon of Australian music in Judith Durham AO. Born in Essendon to William Cock and Hazel Durham, she grew up between Victoria and Tasmania. She received formal training as a pianist from the University of Melbourne conservatorium. She began her singing career at 18 years of age out of sheer persistence. She frequented the Memphis Jazz Club and asked week after week to get on stage. The bandleader would tell her, 'Come back next week.' So she'd come back next week, and again she'd be dismissed—'Come back next week.' She kept going to that jazz club week after week, until finally they let her on stage. Then, after having rejected this amazing singer for so long, everyone in the room was blown away by her voice.

She met her lifelong friends Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley in 1962, and they became the Seekers, releasing their debut album in 1963, Introducing the Seekers. Their recording of 'Waltzing Matilda' reached the Melbourne top 40. They saw enormous success with songs such as 'I'll Never Find Another You', 'A World of Our Own', 'The Carnival Is Over' and 'Georgy Girl'.

I need to note that, of course, their song 'I Am Australian', which still blasts out on my television screen on ABC Kids on a regular basis, causing half my household to break out into song, is still a favourite of many. One of the things that I want to share with the parliament today is that one of the unexpected outpourings of love for Judith Durham that we saw was the number of letters that were sent to the Australian government in good-hearted advocacy saying that 'I Am Australian' should be considered as our new national anthem. Now, that is not going to happen. We will not be going to a vote for a new national anthem, but I did have the joy, on behalf of the Prime Minister, of responding to hundreds and hundreds of letters from people who shared their love of this incredible Australian musician and the music that captured so much of this nation. Again, I thank everyone who wrote in with their good-hearted suggestions on that particular topic.

Every one of those songs that I just mentioned sold over a million copies. Selling over a million copies of a song, particularly a song written in the sixties and released in Australia, is an incredible achievement for an Australian musical outfit. In 1968, another first—yet to be replicated—was that Durham and the entire group of the Seekers were named collectively as Australians of the Year. It was the eighth year of the Australian of the Year awards, and it is still to this day the only time that a group has received the Australian of the Year award. I'd just say, particularly with the Special Envoy for the Arts here, that the musicians of 2022 need to lift their game! But it is fitting that such a brilliant musical team got that award recognising their great contribution to Australia. Durham also had wonderful success as a solo artist, sharing that part of her musical journey with her husband, Ron Edgeworth.

We saw some 2,000 people gather for her state memorial service, which included musical tributes from everyone from Dami Im through to the Wiggles. Her older sister, Beverley, recounted:

We'd sing together early in the morning and my father would have to come in and say, 'That's enough. Your mother can't sleep.

Her Seekers bandmate Keith Potger said:

You're not really gone, because your picture is on my wall and your boundless spirit and love will be in my heart forever.

Bruce Woodley told of Durham's struggles battling a serious lung disease through most of her career:

Her bravery and single-mindedness in overcoming the enormous physical obstacles that life threw at her has always been an inspiration to me.

And indeed it has been an inspiration to many. We saw the Seekers play a previously unreleased song, 'Carry Me'. Athol Guy said of the song:

It is now our collective gift to share with you tonight as we celebrate Judith's magnificent gifts to us all. May it carry her safely on the rest of her journey.

I think we can all echo those sentiments.

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